A not-so-crazy conspiracy theory about why the NBA let Kawhi get off (mostly) scot-free

The NBA dropped a sledgehammer on the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday for their role in a salary-cap circumvention scandal involving star forward Kawhi Leonard, but Leonard himself emerged mostly unscathed. He has to pay the league $700,000 "in connection with his violations," but that pales in comparison to the $30 million fine, multiple suspensions for team executives and the five stripped first-round picks that the NBA levied on the Clippers.

That begs the question: Why did the NBA go so hard on the Clippers but so light on Kawhi? Did it really believe that his uncle and business manager Dennis Robertson arranged all of these deals without his knowledge, as he claimed in a statement after the ruling?

Perhaps, although that stretches the lines of credulity. The law firm that conducted the investigation, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, cut through the Clippers' repeated obfuscation but took Leonard at his word?

“How does Kawhi get off this easy?” an Eastern Conference executive said to Howard Beck of The Ringer. “Kawhi is a fully fledged adult who makes decisions for themselves. … ‘Oh, I was misdirected by my own uncle’? Are you freaking kidding me? What are you, 15?”

Alternatively, there's an not-so-crazy conspiracy theory that could explain why Leonard got off mostly scot-free.

How the NBPA might have spared Kawhi

Buried at the bottom of the NBA's announcement of the Clippers' punishment was a key line: "The NBA and the NBPA have entered into an agreement confirming these penalties are final and binding on all parties." However, the Clippers issued a statement afterward saying they intended "to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process."

That door closed on them quickly, though.

The NBA's collective bargaining agreement says the commissioner can levy penalties for circumvention "upon a finding of a violation… by the system arbitrator, but only following the conclusion of any appeal to the appeals panel." So, why don't the Clippers have the right to appeal?

"That particular part only applies to penalties applied to a player, not to a team or its management," John Hollinger of The Athletic explained. "… Because Leonard and the NBA Players Association signed off on his repaying $700,000, there was no further process that would require an arbitrator."

That might give away the game.

In late July, "sources close to the National Basketball Players Association" told ESPN's Baxter Holmes that the union "wouldn't hesitate to take the matter to arbitration if the NBA sought penalties without sufficient evidence." A few weeks later, Holmes, Don Van Natta Jr. and Ramona Shelburne added: "Two sources familiar with the NBPA's thinking and the arbitration process said an argument that a sponsor introduction counts as salary-cap circumvention likely would not survive."

Granted, that's the tip of the iceberg of what the Wachtell investigation uncovered. It found evidence of the Clippers facilitating sponsorship deals between Leonard and four of its business partners, which alone would have been a circumvention violation. But more damningly, the report also accused the Clippers of "inducing the companies to enter into these agreements by offering them business from the team."

The entire summary report is well worth a read, if only to see just how dead-to-rights the NBA has the Clippers. Here's one key takeaway, though:

"The timing of the three endorsement agreements with Mr. Leonard coincides with each of the companies receiving multi-million-dollar payments from the Clippers, purportedly in connection with business to be provided by these companies to the team. But these payments may in fact have been made principally to fund the endorsement deals with Mr. Leonard.

"Indeed, a credible witness with direct knowledge told investigators that the consulting agreement one company signed with the Clippers was in fact a ruse, designed and intended to be a vehicle for the team to provide the company with funds to be paid to Mr. Leonard. According to this witness, the company was willing to enter into such a sham consulting agreement based on the promise to win a much larger services contract with the Clippers. This confidential information came to investigators late in the investigation, and additional steps are ongoing to corroborate it."

As the NBA noted in its announcement of the Clippers' punishment: "Wachtell Lipton continues to receive information relevant to the investigation, and the league will consider further action as appropriate." Pablo Torre of Meadowlark Media, who first broke the news on Leonard's "no-show" sponsorship deal with Aspiration exactly one year ago today, hinted that there's still "more to come."

If the NBPA hadn't signed off on the NBA's punishment, it could have pursued arbitration, but the arbitrator would have had "authority to order the production of documents, the conduct of pre-hearing depositions, and the attendance of witnesses at the hearing with respect to the NBA and the players association and/or any player or team." That might not have been a tree—pun very much intended—that Leonard or the NBPA wanted to go barking up.

By allowing Robertson to effectively take the fall for Leonard, the NBA might have ensured that the NBPA would sign off on its punishment and close the door on arbitration for the Clippers. Additionally, the previously agreed-upon trade involving Leonard between the Clippers and Toronto Raptors should now finally be clear to go through.

When the Raptors initially paused the trade in early July, they said the league office informed them that they would "assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Kawhi." Even if the Wachtell investigation does uncover additional impropriety involving Leonard, the NBA figures to train its sights further on the Clippers instead of Leonard to avoid a protracted fight with the NBPA.

The TL;DR version? This is why good labor unions matter.

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